The Mayo Clinic diabetes diet was created by health professionals at the medical facility in Rochester, Minnesota. It is a healthy eating strategy designed to help diabetics control their blood-sugar or glucose levels. If you've been a junk food junkie, following the Mayo Clinic plan will teach you eat a well-balanced, varied diet that will help prevent uncomfortable and dangerous fluctuations in your blood sugar.
Food Exchange
If your doctor has recommended the clinic's diet, you'll need to familiarize yourself with its key component, the food-exchange system. This system allows you to eat different foods within basic food groups, so you can more easily maintain the same number of calories, carbohydrates and other nutrients each day while still enjoying a diet rich in taste and variety.
The basic food types are starches, fruits, milk, meat and meat substitutes, non-starchy vegetables, fats, sweets and free foods (foods that have less than 20 calories and five carbohydrates per serving). Within each of these groupings is a list of individual foods and portions that you can choose from each day.
For example, if you're trying to decide which starch you're going to have for lunch, you can look at the exchange list for starches and see that you can have either 1 slice of whole-grain bread, 2 slices of reduced calorie bread, or ½ cup mashed potatoes, etc.
Sorting the Swap
The trick with the Mayo Clinic plan is knowing how many exchanges per basic food type you can have in any one day. The answer depends on your sex, age, individual weight, weight-loss goal, if any, and the severity of your diabetes. You and your doctor should agree on whether you are already at a healthy weight or if you need to shed some pounds.
You will also need to find out what your maximum daily calorie and carbohydrate intake should be and how many exchanges of each basic food type you're allowed before you get started on the diet. If your doctor can't supply you with this information, he or she will need to refer you to a registered dietician. The dietician will tell you how many daily exchanges from each basic food group you can have to help you meet your weight and glucose management goals. He or she will also show you how you can spread your exchanges throughout the day in such a way that your blood sugar will remain steady.
Keeping It Straight
After you've been on the diet for a while, you'll probably know off the top of your head how many exchanges you're allowed each day and which foods are contained within each of the basic groups. Until then, you can always print the food listings and keep them handy, or, thanks to today's technology, you can save the Mayo Clinic's exchange listings weblink on your computer and/or phone.
Tags: basic food, Mayo Clinic, each basic, many exchanges, your doctor, basic food type, blood sugar
